New Valley News China correspondent reports after a September telephone call.
Shanghai is incident-wise in advance of us. ‘Do not have your worldwide ears fully open’ has, in the UK, actually cost people fatally. Blame will not bring them back and hindsight does send a message. Repeat mistakes will confirm they were not ears fully open.
Shanghai is fully open, seen on the surface to be a return to normal. The street officials, state or army, are much relaxed, often performing in a perfunctory manner, the temperature and tracing app devices sometimes merely pointed at some people.
There are, however, strict rules when travelling by public transport, and all must be masked.
At the best of times, Shanghai underground at rush hour was fit to bursting. My Chinese daughter always avoided it.
Shanghai has, however, become much more expensive and especially when it comes to their hospitality trade. The inexpensive good quality Chinese fare has also become much more expensive.
Is this Chinese business trying to recover what must have been huge losses from a draconian lockdown? Hopefully there will be no spike there. The UK intervention strategy may be a better policy which ensures a higher percentage of hospitality trade business survivals.
The air travel industry is likewise hiking airfares to China. I have found, in the recent past, return fares Heathrow to Shanghai to be of the order of £600 indirect.
The EU did maintain airfares which other international airlines mirrored. Leaving the EU might just be another unforeseen downside. The cost is now between £2,000 and £3,000. British language teachers returning from visiting families in the UK face a massive hike at a cost of a month’s salary.
The train to Beijing via Moscow and across the Gobi desert was twice the cost of the airfare, I believe, but it may be the way to go and my son’s friends who did it, found it memorable. It did however take a week. In the event of a further spike, would the weeks travel come off the 10/14 day of quarantine?
Could be an option for UK/China travellers.
Just hope you do not have to eat from food trolleys.